Master in Human Rights and Humanitarian Action

General objectives

Over the past decades, human rights have known a singular development that upsets the traditional Westphalian order of the world. Human rights are often perceived as the panacea of the many ills that convulse today's global society: failing aid to development, impunity, corruption, social injustice, indignity, insecurity… Omnipresent, they are no longer the exclusive matter of international advocacy NGOs: governments, intergovernmental organizations, corporations, development agencies, local organizations working in the fields of health, education, environmental protection, labour… are and will be confronted with the exacting demands of human rights discourse. This cannot be truer than in the field of humanitarian action which has also known (unsurprisingly) a formidable expansion in parallel. This intertwining of human rights and humanitarian action would seem natural but is not in fact historically based, and is both intellectually and pragmatically challenging.

Main orientations and specific feature

The Master in Human Rights and Humanitarian Action programme provides students with a unique blend of core social science approaches (philosophy, history, sociology, anthropology) to humanitarianism and human rights intended to deconstruct the intuitive familiarity between the two fields and renew the debate concerning the universalism and political neutrality of human rights and humanitarian action through empirical study. It also offers indispensable courses in international law and global/regional institutional frameworks and advocacy skills.

The teaching and learning objective is to give students the tools for strong analytical contextualisation that gives both depth and breadth to the issues and stakes in human rights and humanitarian action and that enable students to make the 'right decision at the right moment' when undertaking action on the ground. Going beyond the offerings of a typical LLM human rights programme or the more professionally oriented 'humanitarian' programmes. Another unique element of the programme is an emphasis on the "French" approach to humanitarian action and human rights while incorporating the pragmatic, judicial American approach to the field.

Depending on their career goals, students will specialise during their second year in either the field of human rights or humanitarian action.

Career opportunities

Master of Human Rights and Humanitarian Action graduates may consider a variety of careers: NGOs, the diplomatic corps/national administrations, international organisations, journalism, and with a prior qualifying course of study, law (practising lawyer, international and regional courts of justice).